”Fairest Maid, where all Is fair, Beauty’s pride and Nature’s care; To you my heart I must resign, O choose me for your Valentine! Love, Mighty God! Thou knows’t full well, where all thy Mother’s graces dwell, Where they inhabit and combine to fix thy power with spells divine; Thou knows’t what powerful magick lies within the round of Sarah’s eyes, Or darted thence like lightning fires, and Heaven’s own joys around inspires; Thou knows’t my heart will always prove the shrine of pure unchanging love!”
– wrote Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe to Sarah “Sally” Townsend on Valentine’s Day in 1779. Apparently this is the firts known Valentine’s Day message in America.
Fans of the tv series Turn: Washington’s Spies might know the story differently. In the show Simcoe (played by Samuel Roukin) shows affection towards Anna Strong (Heather Lind) in Setauket.
In reality, while he was billeted in Samuel Towsend’s home in Oyster Bay, Simcoe became obsessed with one of his daughters, Sally. Yes, this is the same Samuel Townsend we know from the show (portrayed by John Billingsley), father of Robert Townsend (Nick Westrate), a.k.a Samuel Culper Jr.
I think it was a smart decision from the creators of the show to leave out the less-important Townsend family members from the story. Indeed, Washington’s Spies is one of the best examples how to alter certain historical facts to the sake of the storytelling and yet keep the essence of those events real and alive.
John Graves Simcoe, who became the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada in 1791, married an English woman, Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim in 1782. The couple had 11 children.
📖 Further readings 📖
A History of the Operations of a Partisan Corps Called The Queen’s Rangers Commanded by Lieut.-Col. J. G. Simcoe During the War of the American Revolution
(Simcoe’s memoire about the time of the Revolutionary War)
Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary
(between 1791 and 1796, while her husband was lieutenant governor in Upper Canada
Alexander Rose: Washington’s Spies
(the book the tv series is based on)